Technology played a major role in fuelling the revolutions that swept through the Middle East from 2011, exemplified most obviously in the massive use of Twitter and other social media forums. Now, many NGOs and independent initiatives are employing new technologies in their fight against gender discrimination. In Egypt alone, initiatives and NGOs such as HarassMap, Shoft Taharush, Bassma, Tahrir Bodyguards and Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment (OpAntiSH) have used technological activism and different forms of social media to draw attention to sexual harassment and fight against it.
HarassMap, for example, is the first initiative to employ online crowdsourcing to a social problem in Egypt. Launched in 2010, HarassMap aims to tackle sexual harassment in Egyptian society by utilizing both geographic information system (GIS) and SMS technologies. Incidents of sexual harassment can be reported through Facebook and Twitter, through the HarassMap website, or simply by sending an SMS. The Map (that pinpoints all incidents) represents a new and innovative step towards documenting cases of sexual harassment in Egypt, a country where—according to UN Women—99% of women have been subjected to some form of sexual harassment in public spaces. The Map also serves as an alternative safe space, through which women who have been harassed or witnesses to harassment can anonymously talk about their experiences. The Map can also be used as an awareness-raising tool, and in education efforts aimed at changing behaviours and attitudes that promote harassment.
